If you’re a major automaker who needs to introduce something new overnight, you have two options: Either throw all resources at it and throw caution to the wind, or pull a steamed hams and disguise someone else’s cooking as your own. The Honda Prologue may look like a Honda and say Honda on the back, but it’s built by General Motors from GM powertrain components in GM’s Ramos Arizpe assembly plant. This isn’t a first-generation EV — the Chevrolet Bolt was on GM’s previous dedicated EV platform — but judging by what owners are experiencing, it doesn’t seem that all the technology underneath the Honda Prologue is mature. It’s actually causing problems that are giving Prologue owners serious headaches.
First, let’s set the scene: It’s 2025 and car forums are still miraculously kicking. While broader interest forums have largely been supplanted by Facebook groups, model-specific forums are still chugging along, and the general discussion section of most new car forums is filled with a wide variety of topics. Talk about features, specs, accessories, economy, and all the facets of owning a particular vehicle. The Prologue Drivers forum is a little bit different. Click on the general discussion tab, and you’ll find that it’s heavily composed of Prologue owners complaining about their GM-built EVs.
While minor complaints from memory seat issues to wireless Apple CarPlay dropouts pepper the board, sadly, a few tech glitches are par for the course on new cars. What isn’t par for the course? Actual mechanical issues, that’s what. Unfortunately, it seems that a bunch of Prologue owners have been experiencing real problems with their vehicles, things that really shouldn’t be failing on brand-new cars.
Take this thread titled “I’ve got the axle issue,” for example. One Honda Prologue owner noticed their EV was making a clicking noise while turning with just 700 miles on the dashboard, booked their Prologue in for servicing, and asked the forums for advice, seeing as others had been there before. Naturally, it didn’t take long for more owners to chime in about experiencing this issue. Blastoid wrote “It was diagnosed on my car as axles. I think the one or two that had the CV joints replaced, had the sound come back,” while other owners went into further detail. In the words of Fastermac:
I have the bad axles as well. 3150 miles. First heard the clunks after 1500 miles. It has gotten more frequent. Noise occurs at both left and right turns but not every time. Dealer is in the process of getting replacement approval. I’ll keep driving the car since this will probably take at least a month. Hopefully Honda/GM can figure out why this is happening. I see no point in replacing them with parts that are still defective.
It’s not great to see multiple reports of CV axle issue on low-mileage cars, but it also makes me feel like I’m not crazy and imagining the clicking sound I heard in the last Prologue I drove, notably while turning and accelerating from slow speeds. However, it’s not the most serious mechanical issue that lots of Prologue owners are talking about.
Another thing you’ll see on the board is wide reporting of high voltage system error messages. One thread, titled ““Service High Voltage System” and “Reduced Acceleration Drive with Care” errors on dashboard,” details one Prologue owner’s encounter with dashboard lights and subsequent replacement of air conditioning system valves, with other owners chiming in reporting similar issues. As aslam wrote:
I have Honda Prologue Touring 2024 for about 2 weeks now. I was quite happy with the vehicle but all of sudden these 2 warning messages started popping on my dashboard screen, “Service High Voltage System” and “Reduced Acceleration Drive with Care” errors on dashboard. Vehicle is not getting charged after that and throwing this error “Unable to Charge, Service charging station”. Only thing that I remember did extra on that particular day that I turned on the heater on “Hi”.
However, air conditioning valves is one of the better outcomes of high voltage system errors. Prologue owners have also reported battery pack failure at low mileage, with a thread titled “Battery replacement already!” started by Jesse1320 striking a chord with the community. Here’s what the initial post said:
So I purchased a Prologue Elite and within my first week of ownership SO many issues were found with the vehicle. The main one being 500 miles into the car the high voltage battery needing replacement!! The battery is on back order and now I am out of my brand new car for no one knows how many months. Anyone else have had similar issues?? Should I wait for the battery replacement?? Or should I try to switch to a new Prologue if allowed through the dealership and hope for no problems??
Help!!
Jesse1320 definitely isn’t the only Prologue owner to require battery pack replacement at low mileage. Forum user ST0818 chimed in on the thread with their own experience, writing:
I’m having the same issue except at 994 miles. My car has been in the shop for the past 7+ weeks. They have no timeline on how long the battery will take and I have no patience left. I filed a case with American Honda but it’s been pointless.
In addition, forum member james reported experiencing similar issues with their Prologue, adding to the thread:
As an FYI on this thread – I had to take my car in for this error on 8/23. They tested and informed me they would have to order a new battery as something had shorted, that the batteries were backordered, and it would likely take a month or so to fix. I just got the call today that the battery came earlier this week and its installed and ready for pickup tomorrow. Hopefully others w/ this issue have been able to get this cleared up quickly as well.
Oh, and the list goes on. Forum user Heidifleck kept things short, writing “I am in the exact same boat. 2024 Elite, 510 miles needs new battery. Any update on your car?” Joeyfadem added “Now my car needs a new battery as well.”, while DarthRater went into more detail:
Hey lucky me, I got to join this club today! 500 miles in, the app starts harassing me about “charge aborted” and by morning stops reporting data completely, and the red car was on. Take it to dealer, the warning had gone off but the app still unresponsive. And the damned battery is on backorder.
In another thread titled “High Voltage Battery failure and service engine soon,” forum member A’Mazin detailed their own experience with high voltage system failure, eventually diagnosed as bad modules in the high-voltage battery pack. As the forum member wrote:
Literally took posseion of my new 2024 Honda Prologue a week ago today. 5 days in and I went to charge at a public charging station (waiting on Honda to send me our home charger) and all was going well. At 72% it stopped charging with an error message stating that it cannot find a charger and the connection cannot be detected. I unplugged and then tried to plug back in, however the charging station could not establish a connection. I figured 72% was good enough and cut my loss. When I stared the car immediately error messages appeared . High voltage battery failure and service engine soon. Of course I freaked out thinking I did something wrong ( new to EV and first time charging myself). Of course read the owners manual and then did my own research and found this forum and YouTube channels. Looks like I am falling in the same boat as many of you. Car is at the dealership and they tried to charge it and it will not charge. Needless to say, I’m on a loaner and my dealership is lost. We have been a Honda family for ever. We currently own two CR-V’s, one civic, and now a prologue. I just traded my odyssey for the prologue and I’m really questioning my decision. I know that the prologue is made with a collaboration with GM but I’m not loving the EV life so far. My question is after you have experienced this situation has the car been working fine afterwards? I don’t want to give up on it but I don’t need to be stuck on the side of the road with my kids. I buy Honda because of the reliability
If that sounds like a lot of frustration, then boy, do I have a forum thread for you. It’s titled “For everyone who is frustrated with the car and wish they never bought it,” and it seems to be one of the more popular threads this week on the Prologue Drivers forum. It starts off with forum member “Blastoid” recommending selling troublesome cars for peace of mind, and while a few owners have chimed in reporting trouble-free experiences, others have reported glitches and hardware issues that prevent them from really loving their EVs.
At the same time, threads like this won’t help people who are underwater on their cars and can’t afford to take a bath, or who are locked into a lease term and can’t justify the termination fee. While these problems certainly don’t apply to all GM products, they do seem to apply to the Ultium EVs, and GM has a history of a fix-it-in-post mentality. Some of these problems owners report like drivetrain clicking and Apple CarPlay dropping out were issues I experienced in a press car, and I also experienced the tire pressure monitoring system dropping out. Meanwhile, I experienced no software or mechanical issues in a Honda HR-V press car I drove the prior week in similar conditions.
We asked Honda about these reported powertrain issues, and the firm responded by stating “Owners with concerns should contact their local Honda dealer for assistance. The Prologue is covered by a robust warranty.”
The bottom line? Owners are frustrated and disappointed, and if you’re looking at a Honda Prologue, don’t go into it expecting Honda reliability. Perhaps this pattern of problems will be fixed as time goes on, but for now, more reasons why Honda’s launching its own EVs soon are coming into focus.
(Photo credits: Honda, Prologue Drivers forum)
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A GM-built vehicle with quality and design issues? I am shocked, just shocked! How can it be!
Should we call it the Honda Prolapse?
If you really like reading EV forum horror stories, go read about Audi E-tron GTs. Remember those? The EV Audi flagship, Taycan by another name? Yeah they’re about 50/50 trash vs ok, and they’re depreciating like a rock. At this point I’d never buy a new EV; only lease, if that.
see also: Toyota Cavalier (GM), Toyota 86 (Subaru), Toyota Supra (BMW), Honda Passport (Isuzu), Acura SLX (Isuzu), some recent Infiniti models (M-B)
bad things happen when you try to rebadge inferior cars
Maybe GM should go back to rebadging Japanese cars again, instead of the other way around.
Glad to see GM is still sabotaging electric cars (30 years and counting). Why did we bail them out again?
Only bought the daughter a used Vibe because it is a Toyota in disguise.
I literally think that the only thing GM engineered on that car IS the badging.
The center console is all theirs, and it is the worst part of the vehicle.
(Matrix owner here.)
The Bose stereo they used started not ejecting my CDs, so after I got them all out (begging seemed to work), I replaced it.
Also, I sometimes like to have the defrost on without requiring the air conditioning on (the air is dry enough here in SoCal). Prior cars I had owned allowed me to turn off the A/C. This one, no.
I still have it, at 240,000 miles. I want to keep it until 300,000 to see it not go any further (not sure if that is a Toyota or GM feature), but at my current usage, that will be 12 years or so.
Hers is a gen2, I think there was even more commonality on these.
You forgot my personal favorite, the Honda Crossroad. A rebadged Land Rover Discovery I. But to be fair, Honda and Rover were partners then, and Honda had a hand in designing the Disco. You can clearly see the influence in the interior design in funny little ways.
GM (and Chrysler) were bailed out because either one of them going down would have taken down the entire auto industry in the US due to all of the suppliers that would have gone down with them. But I certainly see no need at all to buy their crappy products. I’d buy from Chrysler long before I bought from GM.
I’ve been a GM technician and a Chrysler technician… I’d take GM’s worst products over most of Chrysler’s. I mean, at least an Acadia/Enclave/Traverse/Outlook will make it through the end of it’s warranty without a major failure more often than not, there’s quite a few Chrysler products that aren’t so fortunate as a general rule.
There are a couple of Chrysler products I would buy. A couple Jeeps, a Pacifica, I even like the Hemi Challengers – I would likely have one if they made a factory convertible. There are zero GM products I would buy. I don’t care if they break in the warranty period, that’s WHY they have warranties. Most cars (at least those that have been in production long enough to iron out the kinks) are “reliable enough” these days, but you couldn’t pay me to drive any of the dreck you mentioned.
Cool, I’ll wave or flip you the bird when I drive by while you wait on roadside assistance.
I have not had to wait on roadside assistance in decades, even while owning things such as Range Rovers and Land Rovers. I am not worried about it in the slightest.
Damn son, you love unreliable garbage, huh?
Not unreliable for me, and certainly not garbage. <shrug>
we could’ve bailed out the suppliers without bailing out Ford/GM/Chrysler
And still cost 100K+ jobs. And both companies paid the government back, with interest, every penny. It was good investment, whether you like what they build or not.
Ford wasn’t bailed out.
Ford bailed themselves out by hocking everything up to and including the Ford name to get enough cash to squeak by. But the Ford *family* would NEVER allow Ford to go through bankruptcy like GM and Chrysler did, they would be wiped out. Ford is still very much a family business as even though the Ford family owns a relatively small percentage, they own “special” stock that gives them voting control.
I wonder what percentage of buyers think this car is a Honda
It is the epitome of MBA brain to take Honda, who’s value proposition is basically “buy this car if you don’t want to have to think about your car,” and decide to roll out a car using the underpinnings of GM, a company who’s value proposition is “did you ever wonder how cheaply one could make a temporarily functioning vehicle?” The most valuable thing you can possibly have as a consumer company these days is a genuine reputation for quality, so of course that’s the first thing we’re burning down for a quick buck.
GM gonna GM…
FWIW, according to a recent article here, GM is turning a profit on their EVs. :ROLL:
Got a seriously great lease deal on one on Dec. 27. On Dec. 29th at 204 miles, I got the service high voltage system error, limped home, and got it to the dealer on Jan 2nd. I literally had to argue with the dealership manager to get a loaner.
…where it sat for 8 days waiting for parts. My parts did show up but a tech took them to repair another Prologue that came in after mine. Learned that there was no ETA for the necessary parts now. I blew up and demanded they pull the part from a Prologue on the lot… and they did. 500 miles later, no problems.
Experience was very different on my Fiat 500e, and VW eGolf – both were literally problem free for the years I owned them.
I kind of wondered if BMW was going to do the same thing to Toyota buyers with the Supra, but I suppose it helps that they only sold like 8 of them and they don’t really get driven much
Modern BMWs are reasonably reliable, albeit more maintenance intensive than the typical Japanese buyer is used to. And at the end of the day, the driving experience is worth a little pain now and again. That is rarely the case with a GM product. The juice is not worth the squeeze with them with too few exceptions.
I don’t quite understand how BMW cracked the reliability nut given how many issues they had with engine families like the N63 and and N43 last decade. Even while M-B and Audi/VW sit toward the bottom of CR reliability surveys (which are always taken with a grain of salt, of course), BMW sits right at the top rivalling Toyota and Subaru (again, supposedly). Have they really gone all-in on a major campaign to bulletproof their running gear and doubled down on actually making super-reliable cars? Or have they managed to simply make them last long enough to get beyond the CR survey window? I admire BMWs greatly, but stories like Tracy’s i3 scare me away again.
With BMW and the case of the B58, they’ve had the generations of N54 and N55 to perfect everything on it. The N54 came out during the Bush administration and has been a constant iteration ever since. The current N63 has also proven to be extreme reliable in the most recent iterations as well. The thing that should scare you is when BMW decides to discontinue the B58/N63 and release a new engine.
Sadly I doubt they will. It will be all boring EVs, all the time, by then.
The i3 was a science experiment and should in no way should be considered any sort of example of what to expect of a BMW.
The trick is knowing what to buy. They DID have some issues with the early N20 4cyl turbos. Fixed now, but I would not buy one of those. The sixes are very solid. The n/a sixes are very, very reliable other than they will all have the same oil leaks eventually. Fix the leaks, or change the gaskets preemptively, and enjoy the cars. As I like to say, proper maintenance is more than just changing the oil once in a while.
From what I’ve seen and heard, the Supra has proven to be decently reliable.
Why in God’s name would Honda pollute their good reputation by putting their badge on a GM product? How many of these folks will care that it’s GM under the branding and how many will tell everyone they know about their piece-of-shit electric Honda?
Funny how apple carplay seems to be an issue and guess what GM doesn’t use for their EVs? Apple carplay. That’s a Honda electronic/software issue which makes you wonder how many other issues are because of Honda software that’s being blamed on GM?
If the blazer isn’t experiencing the same issues they are Honda problems.
High Voltage Battery failure is very much an issue on many Blazer EVs. As are bad axles. Those can’t really be fixed with software.
easy, no one at Honda corporate has ever owned a GM product.
Knock on wood, our leased Prologue has been mechanically fine. Sure – first world problems like the seat memory feature not working and delayed CarPlay (mainly for my wife’s phone for whatever reason) exist. But they’re first world problems. Otherwise it’s a pleasant, comfortable drive – especially when I switch from our Wrangler JL with at least on cupped tire or from the 2015 190k Odyssey that’s got general 190k mile car stuff going on.
But boy howdy am I glad we leased.
Cars: Become more like computers
GM: Lays off thousands of coders
Genius fucking move.
Apple carplay problems have nothing to do with GM as GM doesn’t use carplay on their EVs.
Maybe these other electronic issues are Honda coding issues as well as I haven’t heard of blazer customers having the same problems.
We leased one in November and have put about 3,500 miles on it, completely trouble free. We did have a high voltage warning once. I found some instructions online from GM on a reset procedure and it did the trick. No lights or issues since. We have been very happy with our Prologue and I went in knowing it was a GM product. Glad we leased, as of now I would never purchase an EV with the tech advancing and the depreciation.
https://www.chevrolet.com/support/vehicle/dashboard-lights-signals/ev-warning-light#:~:text=If%20the%20warning%20light%20didn't%20go%20away%20and/or,back%20on%20again%20each%20time.
When Honda buys Nissan, it can leverage all the new-tech EV savvy featured in the Leaf.
A 4th Gen Honda fit with a Nissan eNV200 drivetrain (Leaf battery with cooling fan) and NACS would be an improvement over the Prologue.
I’d joke about a k swap if these didn’t weigh almost 3 tons
I thought you were exaggerating. Looked it up and you’re right, this thing actually weighs a solid 2 1/2 tons.
That’s Honda’s reputation weighing down on it.
I always proofread the dumb things I say in comments except for when I don’t
I only proofread after I post, then madly scramble to get to the [edit] button in time. Hey DT, need a spare editor?
It worked better the other way around, when they put Honda v6s in Saturn Vues.
The Vue experience ends up being a nightmare of repeated drive line repairs justified by an unkillable engine. Sure, if it was 100% GM they’d all be dead but at least they would have died with dignity. Watching them limp along as some of the last Saturns makes my heart ache. GM diluted the brand so much that every Vue has a steel trunk rusting in the same spot on the license plate trim.
Didn’t the Redline Vue also have the Honda automatic transmission that gave Odyssey owners so much grief?
It might have, or it got the updated version. Something to consider if you’re shopping for one.
All V6 VUEs 2004-07 were the Honda 3.5/5AT combo. Transmission failures dated back to the earlier 4AT on any V6 Honda products, each one had their own sort issues but the 4AT was the “bigger” one at least in starting to sully Honda’s rep.
The impression I’ve gotten is that overly frequent fluid changes do a lot to help the 5AT’s life (kinda like many CVTs), but then arguably same is true for most transmissions, just others are more forgiving.
Purchasing a first-gen EV from a GM/Honda joint venture sounds like a terrible idea. Purchasing any EV new is a terrible idea. Leasing is the only way to take advantage of the majority of incentives available – and at the end of the lease term you can just walk away from the car if it is a problem. Sure, leasing is throwing away money but so is buying an EV new – the depreciation on these things is far beyond any ICE car.
Is it possible to buy out the lease after it ends and keep the car(s) that way? Or does depreciation still annihilate you that way? I’m obtuse when it comes to that stuff since I drive a paid-off car and have since I made my last payment in ‘19.
It’s kind of the latter with depreciation. I was looking into this with an Audi Q5 plugin hybrid just yesterday. If you buy out the lease, you pay the residual (which is set at lease inception) plus whatever fees there are. In many cases, the residuals are artificially inflated by the leasing company to make your monthly payments less. It’s a case-by-case basis. The Audi had about $20k on the hood to lease and less than half that for financing. Still, I think buying at the end of the lease you’d pay less than sticker but the residual value is probably higher than what the car would trade for after 2 or 3 years.
What is a “car” “forum“? Is that the opposite of a car fauna?
No, the opposite of a car fauna is a car flora, otherwise known as a VW bus.
I know this sounds like hindsight bias, and I really do feel for the customers who are getting hosed, but it’s not all that surprising.
Honda shouldn’t have trusted GM although they couldn’t go to Tesla or Hyundai for a platform.
These issues are not being reported on the blazer which leads one to believe they are Honda issues.
Carplay? Not available on the blazer so that is 100% a Honda electronics/coding issue.
CarPlay seems a minor issue compared to the other reported issues. I’d like to point out you missed a large number of posts in your drive by astroturf.
Not only can GM reduce American manufacturer quality ratings, they can do the same for Japanese manufacturers. GM going global!
GM doesn’t use carplay in the blazer. So the carplay issues are Honda issues. Since the blazer isn’t experiencing the same issues as the Honda I think it’s safe to say the Honda electronics are junk and causing a lot of problems.
The Prologue is clearly the “How Do You Do, Fellow EVs?” of vehicles.
People who don’t follow cars never question it when things just pop out of the woodwork, while the enthusiast weirdos like us tend to know a few years in advance.
You leave Steve Buscemi out of this!
A couple of years ago on Halloween Steve Buscemi went trick or treating in our neighborhood dressed as his 30 rock character with the skateboard. He was accompanied by Elvis Costello wearing a cheap Elvis Costello costume.
This is what happens when you buy a car based on a badge instead of doing your homework.
People are complaining about carplay problems. That has nothing to do with GM as they do not offer carplay in their EVs. Makes you wonder why the blazer isn’t having the same issues as the Honda is and how much of these problems are from Honda.
Damn we need an ignore feature
The GM Ultiums seem to be a disaster. From the Blazer stop sale to the various Prologue (same thing) issues, yikes. I know of someone who just got a buyback done on their Blazer EV because it kept showing a high voltage error and bricking itself despite three entire reflashes of the system at the dealer’s service department and an investigation by a GM engineer.
That being said, someone else I know had a Mustang Mach E also do the same thing as far as bricking itself.
Dude. Maybe you should put down the EV idea and walk away. As you walk away, don’t go anywhere near a casino. Your luck is dangerously bad.
What’s next? Some brand new EV from Stellantis ?
Money on black or red, the battery still won’t charge!
Wasn’t me. These are members of a forum I’m on. My broke ass drives a paid-off 2016 Mazda6.
Smart. Hopefully someday that wisdom pays out in cash.
GM beancounters kept shaving 1/32” off their electrons until the MTBF was reduced to an acceptable level.
Honda service advisor here. I’ve got a customer’s 2024 Prologue in the shop right now, waiting for the A/C valves mentioned in the article. The last I heard is that it may be a month or more before the parts arrive.
How many has your dealer sold vs. how many have been back for major issues?
I’m not sure how many our dealership has sold but I don’t think it’s more than 10. So far only one that we’ve sold came back with an issue- it had a paint defect on the front bumper and a trim panel issue in the trunk, nothing major.
Honda master tech here. The undersized openings? I’ve seen cases of the guys “modifying” the lines. At least that’s an official procedure on the GM side. Honda very much does not want us to do that for some reason. I’ve done one for one of the A/C check valves installed backwards and triggering a HV fault. I’ve had a bunch of other little dumb things like keys shipped not matching, control units not programmed to the vehicle and other fit and finish items. It’s a nightmare to deal with them because anything you contact Techline about they are like “uhh, let me ask GM and get back to you.” It took so long for them to get proper service procedures out for them on SIS and even now stuff has to be emailed from Techline. That being said I did like the one I took home for a week to get the feel for. The lease price just wasn’t there for me and I would of preferred at 24 month term.
Yeah, none of our techs are excited about working on them.
I hope owners of the Prologue don’t end up in the same situation as, say, Chrysler Crossfire owners.
One of my coworkers had a Crossfire and starting at about year 6 every visit to any of the local Chrysler dealerships was a multi-day operation. The number of techs that had Mercedes-Benz training and were authorized to work on it was dwindling. By the time the car was 8 years old there was one tech in whole area that traveled from dealership to dealership. To make matters worse, if the repair required more than one day or the part wasn’t available, it was another 5 days before the tech came back around to complete the work. A couple of the dealerships finally told her they couldn’t service the vehicle anymore. They couldn’t (or maybe, wouldn’t) order parts and couldn’t (or wouldn’t) tie up a service bay for that long.
At least it sounds like Honda is allowing regular techs to touch the Prologue.
Yea I mean it’s not terribly complicated but definitely not something we are used to. We had to learn how to use GM’s GDS2 and Techline connect software. The service manuals and parts catalogs are all GM too so that takes much longer to navigate. If you don’t work on them all the time then yea, every time you touch one its going to be training day all over again since its totally different. Our policy is already a full day drop off at minimum just in case we hit any snags. Eventually they will shunned from the dealer. Probably 8+ years once the power-train warranties are done and it becomes too much of a hassle to get parts or support from GM. I remember working on the OG Passport/Rodeos. Those took about that long before we stopped bothering to carry parts or order them in for people.